Medals
Also: Commemorative medal, Struck plaque
Medals are struck or cast metal discs with no legal tender status, made from precious metals as commemorative, award or collector pieces.
Few objects of value or distinction reach as far back in history as the precious-metal medal. Set beside bullion coins or everyday circulation coins, medals carry no legal tender status and bear no imprinted face value; whatever they are worth flows purely from the fineness of the metal, the skill of their making and their scarcity as a collector's piece.
How They Are Made and in Which Finenesses
Most precious-metal medals are struck in fine gold (999/1000) or fine silver (999/1000), though 925/1000 silver alloys (sterling silver) and gold-plated pieces turn up frequently too. Well-regarded makers — state mints, private refineries, numismatic publishers — issue them in set weights:
| Weight | Metal | Fineness |
|---|---|---|
| 1 oz (31.1 g) | Gold / Silver | 999/1000 |
| 20 g | Gold / Silver | 999/1000 |
| 50 g | Silver | 999/1000 or 925/1000 |
| 100 g | Silver | 999/1000 |
At any moment you can work out a medal's melt value from its gross weight, its fineness and the live gold price or silver price.
What Separates a Medal from a Coin
The dividing line is drawn by coinage law: a coin is granted a state-backed face value (say, 100 euros) and functions as legal tender. A medal is something else entirely — a private striking or an official commemorative object that carries no monetary status. That distinction carries into taxation. Within the EU, gold coins bearing a legal face value are VAT-free as investment gold. A gold medal has no face value, so for VAT purposes it does not count as a coin — yet it can still be VAT-exempt as a gold plate or bar provided its fineness reaches at least 995/1000 (EU Directive 2006/112/EC). Drop under that threshold (925/1000, for example) and Malta's standard 18% VAT rate kicks in. Silver medals always attract the full Maltese VAT rate of 18%. (This carries no tax or legal advisory character — seek a professional's view in individual cases.)
What They Fetch on Buy-Back
At buy-back a dealer separates the plain metal value from any numismatic mark-up that a rare or in-demand edition might warrant. Ordinary mass editions with no special collector pull tend to be bought at, or just over, the melt value. The premium (agio) you pay when buying can swing widely with the maker, the size of the edition and how well it is packaged.
In Brief
A precious-metal medal blends the intrinsic worth of its material with an artistic or historical collector appeal — but its price answers first and foremost to the current metal quotation, which the melt value calculator lets you read off at any time.